Persephone vs Axis Tilt
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With an account, you can revise, criticize, and comment on ideas.Long ago, Hades, god of the underworld, kidnapped and raped Persephone, goddess of spring. Then Persephone’s mother, Demeter, goddess of the earth and agriculture, negotiated a contract for her daughter’s release, which specified that Persephone would marry Hades and eat a magic seed that would compel her to visit him once a year thereafter. Whenever Persephone was away fulfilling this obligation, Demeter became sad and would command the world to become cold and bleak so that nothing could grow.
This explanation predicts that the seasons happen at the same time everywhere. It contradicts observation: in Australia, the seasons are ‘inverted’.
[W]hy those gods and not others? …
[W]hy is it specifically a magic seed and not any other kind of magic? Why is it a conjugal-visits contract and not some other reason for someone to repeat an action annually?
This explanation basically just says “the gods did it.” The details have no bearing on the underlying explanation.
“[P]eople do not generally cool their surroundings when they are sad…” (BoI chapter 1)
“[W]e have no way of knowing that Demeter is sad…” (BoI chapter 1)
If any prediction of this theory is found to be false, we can easily change it to make different predictions. That’s bad.